Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald: The Verve Years at National Jazz Museum in Harlem 10/19

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Jazz for Curious Listeners
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald: The Verve Years
7:00 - 8:30pm
Location: NJMH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300

On the surface, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald may seem to be a pair of musical artists with vastly different approaches to song. Armstrong's gravely voice might be viewed as diametrically opposed to the perfect pitch beauty of Ella's vocal instrument. But if we look, or rather hear more deeply, we discover not only musical conceptions that cooperate without antagonism, but a profound sensibility of swing at the heart of what makes jazz a universally acclaimed idiom around the world. Their collaborations on the Verve label are masterpieces to be experienced time and time again, with new revelations surfacing upon each listen. Your time will be well spent, and your very soul enriched tonight.

Join host Ricky Riccardi, who describes himself thusly: I'm a 30-year-old Louis Armstrong freak with a Master's in Jazz History and Research from Rutgers where I studied under respected jazz historians Lewis Porter, Henry Martin and John Howland. I taught jazz history for a year at Rutgers and have delivered three lectures on Armstrong at the Institute of Jazz Studies, in addition to appearing at the 2008 and 2009 Satchmo Summerfests in New Orleans. I am finishing a manuscript of a detailed book on Louis Armstrong's Later Years, to be published by Pantheon in 2010. Currently, I am the Project Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens.